Western Resistance

« Russia: Suicide Bombing Near Dagestan Mosque | | Israel: Islamic Jihad Claims Two Suicide Bombings In West Bank »

December 29, 2005

Pakistan: Islamic Seminaries Approach Registration Deadline

There is some confusion here, as we reported on December 23 that the deadline for registering of Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, had been suggested by Pakistan's federal and religious affairs minister, Ijaz-ul Haq, to become redundant.

Initially, President Pervez Musharraf had suggested that there should be a deadline set on December 31 for the registering of all madrassas by December 31. Mr Haq had told the leaders of the five main branches of madrassas that the deadline would be scrapped in a proposal which he intended to submit before the Pakistan parliament.

Today, Reuters AlertNet states that the 12,000 madrassas in Pakistan still have to be registered by December 31, and also by this date they should have removed all foreign students. It appears Mr Haq's proposals have either been rejected or not accepted by parliament.

1 million boys, mostly from poor families, study at the seminaries, receiving free food and shelter as they study. Most madrassas teach the hardline, anti-women doctrine of the Deobandi, a Sunni school of thought, named after its main center in Deoband, northern India.

Musharraf announced the deadline for registration and removal of foreign students back in summer, in the wake of the revelation that suicide bombers from London's 7/7 attacks on London Transport had studied in Pakistani madrassas. In July, 1,400 foreign students were asked to leave, and in August, registration forms were distributted to seminaries, requesting information on numbers of students, teachers, and details on financing and spending.

We reported on one influential madrassa, the Haqqania madrassa, (pictured above), which lies in Northwest Frontier Province, near the border with Afghanistan. Many of the main luminaries of Afghanistan's Taliban, including Mullah Omar, had graduated from this seminary.

In another Reuters report, as well as in Khaleej Times, Ireland's RTE, AKI and Asia News.it, there appears to be a strong resistance in some quarters to comply with the December 31 deadline.

The Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, told Reuters that 65 per cent of foreign students had already left, and the deadline would not be extended. "The provinces will submit reports on the issue on December 31 and any further action will be based on those," he said.

Mohammad Hanif Jallandari, a cleric of the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemaul or Ittehad Tanzemul Madaris Deniya, one of the five alliances of madrassa schools, said that 700 foreign students had already left, and no new ones have been recruited. However he was adamant that the deadline would not be respected, and said the government had made the decision based upon a worng assumption, i.e. that the foreign students were involved in illicit activities.

Asia News.it states that the madrassas will be holding a meeting in Islamabad on January 1 to discuss the issue. Jallandri has threatened a nationwide mobilisation if the government will not withdraw the decree.

AKI had stated on 23 December that the agreement between federal and religious affairs minister, Ijaz-ul Haq and representatives of the five madrassa branches had included Jallandari.

The Pakistan government faced opposition from some Muslim leaders on Friday 23 December after the federal minister for education, Javed Qazi, announced proposed changes to the syllabus of standard schools, regarding teaching of Muslim prayers.

There were protests across Pakistan outside mosques, with calls to expel Qazi for his "secularist" ideas. Qazi had called for the Muslim prayer sessions in the curriculum to remain, but in deference to differing sects of Islam, he suggested the specific wording of prayers should not be part of the syllabus.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 29, 2005 9:05 AM

Comments

Post a comment